


The Silence Before

by triggeringthehealing (froggydarren)



Series: FullmoonFiclet Entries [8]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, implied future character death (more info in notes), mentions of Allison and Derek's death as it happened in canon, post-s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4235004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/triggeringthehealing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wishes there was a way to change fate with the knowledge she has. That her power would be useful. But all she can do is watch as things she already knows are coming happen before her eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Silence Before

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3195734) by [TheTypewriterGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTypewriterGirl/pseuds/TheTypewriterGirl). 



> Written for the Full Moon Ficlet challenge on Livejournal, [prompt #126: Calm Before the Storm](http://fullmoon-ficlet.livejournal.com/327112.html)  
> While the ficlet is a standalone and can be read as such, a part of it (the latter, hinting at non-canon events) was inspired by the wonderful work of [TheTypewriterGirl](http://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTypewriterGirl) and her fic _Home_ (see "Inspired by" for the link). That is where the "implied character death" comes into play. If you're reading Julie's fic, this ficlet relates to the event that starts off _Home_.

Everyone always talks about it like it's days or even weeks before, like it's a prolonged period of time when it gets quiet before shit hits the fan. Lydia knows better though, she is all too familiar with the constant buzzing of voices and noise in her mind that doesn't seem to take a break.

 _Calm before the storm_ they call it, the feeling of absolute silence before everything goes straight to hell and doesn't come back. For her it's different, it isn't like her mind grows silent in the build-up to a scream; it isn’t that she gets a relief and can go on with her life normally for a while.

It's always only a short time, maybe five seconds of absolute nothingness between two moments: one when she realizes who is the reason for the scream that's coming; the other when she feels it building up and she starts actively holding it back. That is the worse option, of course. There are others, ones when she screams almost immediately because the realization doesn't come until it's too late to warn anyone. Then again, somehow it's _always_ too late.

Like Allison.

Lydia knew there was a death coming, but up until the moment when the sword hit, she didn't know _whose death_ it was going to be. So when the realization hit her, even though she wasn't right there where it happened -- she counted one heartbeat, then two, then none -- Lydia's scream burst out without her being able to do anything about it.

Then there was the one where she had weeks of warning, and then she fought it off until she got to Derek's loft, until the scream wasn't just an empty echo wherever she was, but a warning for him. She knew then, from the expression on his face and the calmness with which he reacted to her screaming that Derek had been expecting it. That he'd been _waiting_ to die. It was knowledge that she kept carrying with her since, something that she had no intention of sharing with anyone else, but that gave her a layer of respect for Derek. That same knowledge and respect are the reason why she's relieved -- she didn't know it before, a death is a death to her Banshee powers -- that his death was temporary, a transition.

The worst one is neither the immediate kind, nor the one that takes a long time to happen. She knows now that the absolutely worst calm is different. It's when she _knows_ the moment her eyes fall on the person she'll be screaming for, but the scream itself doesn't come until a while later. When she watches it happen in slow motion, knowing that she won't be able to change anything, that she can participate in what's happening but there will not be a happy ending.

It's called "a calm", but sometimes there's nothing quiet or peaceful about the battle going on around her. The only thing without noise is the inside of her mind. She feels the build-up to the scream, has time to think of all the ways it will impact people around her, people she cares about.

Lydia hates being a Banshee sometimes, hates that there's nothing she can do to change things, to twist fate and save the person who's about to die.

The scream can't be stopped.


End file.
